Herald News: Lost in the storm

IT TURNS out the leadership of NJ Transit was not totally in the dark when it came time last year to prepare for Superstorm Sandy. As newly released documents show, NJ Transit actually had a plan for what to do with the agency's valuable rolling stock to prevent it from sustaining damage during the storm.

The only problem was that the plan was never put into place, and what's more, nearly one year after the storm, nobody seems to know why.

As reported by The Record's Karen Rouse, internal documents show NJ Transit had a plan that called for moving railcars and locomotives "from flood-prone areas to higher ground" as Sandy approached. That strategy was for some reason discarded, and in the end, the agency left hundreds of pieces of equipment vulnerable, and in low-lying locations in the storm's path.

It was only after The Record filed a public-records suit that the transit agency agreed to release a 3 1/2-page copy of a hurricane plan, which had been prepared four months before the storm. Nowhere did the plan recommend what NJ Transit ended up doing: leaving millions of dollars worth of railcars and engines in low-lying yards near water. There has been no explanation as to why the original plan was not followed.

What happened to NJ Transit's equipment stands in contrast to what happened in New York, where a more detailed plan was followed, and a vast majority of trains were moved to higher ground and spared. Meantime, NJ Transit, which chose to keep its equipment in low-lying yards in Kearny and Hoboken, lost 70 locomotives and 273 railcars — a third of the railroad's fleet — and totaling an estimated $120 million.

Legislative leaders are now considering new hearings on why the NJ Transit storm plan was ignored, and we welcome their initiative on the matter.

New Jersey taxpayers deserve to know who, exactly, made the decision to ignore the plan and leave the rail cars in low-lying facilities, and why. They also deserve to know why those who made such decisions are yet to be held accountable.